Different Beginnings
by vine.apple
Summary: What if everything had started out differently? If Tara never had a crush on Ethan, but one on Christian?
1. First Day at the Academy

**Hello FanFiction reader! This is my first Dance Academy fic. The thought came to me in the middle of season 2- what if things had started differently? So please read this and tell me what you think!**

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><p>It was the first day of classes at the Nation Academy of Dance and Tara couldn't have been more excited. As she walked into the building, she knew her life would never be the same.<p>

"TARA!" Kat shouted from down the hall, ecstatic as ever. She was running full speed and before Tara knew it, she'd crashed into her, laughing. The two friends had been reunited at last.

"Kat! How was your summer? I'm so glad we both made it in!"

"It was great, Tara banana! Yes, I have a feeling that this is going to be the best year of our lives."

With that, the two walked into their first class of first year, Ballet with Mrs. Raine.

"Good morning class. I would like to welcome each and every one of you to the National Academy of Dance. Consider it an honor to be here, at the most prestigious school of dance in the nation. Now, with that have being said, lets get down to training."

The class did their usual warm up on the bar. They then learnt some combinations from Mrs. Raine and performed them. It was a quick class altogether, but one that would impact Tara's weeks to come.

"Tara, may I have a word with you?" Mrs. Raine asked, as she was about to leave with Kat.

"Yes ma'am!" Tara walked over to see what Mrs. Raine needed.

"It has come to my attention that your ankles are too weak. I do not believe that the ballet school you were at previously trained you correctly for pointe. From now on and until I say when, you are to not dance en pointe. Do I make myself clear?"

"But Mrs. Raine-"

"No arguments. If you disregard this and still dance en pointe, there will be harsh consequences. So again, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Mrs. Raine."

"Now please hand over your pointe shoes"

Tara grudgingly handed them over. She did not think that this was necessary, but she trusted Mrs. Raine's judgment.

-x-

When she got back to the dorm, she headed back up to her room to change and relax. Abigail was in there already, doing some crunches on her exercise ball.

"What did Mrs. Raine want with you?" She asked. Tara could tell she was tired and had been working out for a while now, probably since class let out.

"She took my pointe shoes…" Tara said, becoming sadder as she realized that it was all real, not just some figment of her imagination.

"It's about time. I was thinking that she'd never get around to taking them away from you. And just making sure, but you know this is basically moving backwards right? I've only ever heard of ballet teachers doing things like this to people in junior high schools." Abigail explained.

"I-" Tara was about to say something but was interrupted by Kat walking into their room.

"Tara! Come on, were going out. Time to celebrate us surviving the first day here!" Kat was so excited that Tara couldn't say no.

"Sounds good Kat just let me change into something here."

"Well hurry up, we need to get a move on! I don't want to be stuck in here for too long. Oh and remember your bathing suit!"

Tara rushed into the bathroom and changed in record speed.

"I'm done!" She announced. "Let's go, Kat! See you later Abigail." They both rushed out of the room, leaving Abigail, who was still working on her core strength.

After they got off campus, Tara became curious about what it was exactly that they were doing.

"So where are we going, Kat?"

"Oh Tara, you'll see soon enough!"

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><p><strong>Love it? Hate it? Tell me in a review!<strong>


	2. Picnic with the Boys

**Tada, chapter 2 is here! I hope you enjoy it! **

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><p>"Kat, this is taking forever! Where are we going?" Tara exclaimed, frustrated. They had been walking for a while now, and her feet were starting to hurt. It didn't help that she had just been dancing.<p>

"Oh Tara, your too impatient! Just wait a minute, were almost there…" And soon enough, they reached their destination.

It was the far side of a park that Tara had not been to before. It seemed almost greener, lusher than the others in the area. She looked around, taking it in. There were trees every few feet and the grass looked perfect—as if it had been cut and taken care of by an expert.

"Wow, this place is beautiful!" Tara said, in awe. There weren't many people around, so that just made it look all the more spectacular.

"Yeah, that's what I thought when I first found this place," Kat replied easily. She then checked her watch and made a face, "Sammy and Christian should have been here by now with the food…"

"Wait, who?" Tara asked, confused.

"Sammy and Christian. They're two people I met today. I invited them to come and hang out with us—they seemed pretty cool. Hold on, you don't mind, do you?" Kat asked, looking a tad nervous.

"Oh sure, of course not. But before they get here, tell me a bit-"

"Tara, they're here! Come on, I'll introduce you!" Kat said, happy again, and jogged off in their direction.

Tara turned around and saw the oncoming boys holding a picnic basket. Kat and the two of them started to head back to where Tara was standing. One of them seemed familiar, but she just couldn't place it. '_It'll come to be later, all I have to do it not think about it'_ Tara thought to herself.

"Ok Tara, these are the boys I was talking about. This is Sammy," she said, pointing to the boy with wavy, short hair, and light brown eyes, "and Sammy, this is Tara."

"Nice to meet you Sammy," Tara said, smiling.

"Yeah nice meeting you too Tara," Sammy replied, grinning.

"And now this is Christian," she said pointing to the other boy, the one she thought she knew form somewhere before. He had nice, tan skin, black hair that was cut to the perfect length, and deep black/brown eyes.

"Christian, this is-"

"Training Bra?" He asked, smirking.

That jogged her memory. During audition week, she had accidentally gone to the guy's changing room instead of the girl's because she didn't know whose was whose and had believed Kat when she said that the guy's changing room was the girl's. She had gone in and started to change when out came this boy who immediately made fun of her training bra.

Tara tried not to show it, but she was very, very embarrassed.

"Do you two know each other?" Kat asked, confused.

"Yeah, she was the one who changed in our locker room during audition week. Sammy, this is the girl I was talking about earlier." Christian said, still half smiling.

"Ah! So this is the famous Training Bra." Sammy said, chuckling.

Tara's face was red hot. Kat saw this and tried to lighten the mood, "well that was only because I was trying to play a prank on her. So cut it out guys. We're here to enjoy our first day at the academy with some good food and nice company." With that she took the basket from Sammy's hands, opened it up, took the cloth out, and spread it out on the grass. She sat down and looked up expectantly. "Are you all really not going to sit down?"

Tara quickly sat down, followed by Sammy and Christian. Sammy took the basket from Kat and started taking the food out of it.

"My mum made some cake for me, so I decided to bring some. It's really good so you all should try some of it." Sammy said, feeling proud that he had some food from home to share with his new friends.

"Lovely! I'm starving," Tara said.

"Me too!" Kat agreed.

"Well I am in the mood for some cake…" Christian said. He then grabbed the box from Sammy, took a slice out, and then took a bite out of it. "Wow Sammy, your mum makes some good food. I think I'll just eat this…"

"No way! I want some too Christian!" Tara said, eager to try the cake

"Whoa there Training Bra, don't get too excited," Christian said, smirking again.

"Well don't hog it all then! Hand it over!" Tara countered.

Kat and Sammy looked at each other—they knew this argument over the cake was nowhere close to being done.

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><p><strong>Sooo what did you guys think? Tell me in a review, they make me happy! :)<strong>


	3. Long Walks and Dunking Contests

**Thanks to everyone who added this story to his or her story alerts- its pretty exciting! Here's chapter 3, hope you guys like it!**

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><p>"Ugh! Kat, he's just so infuriating!" Tara ranted. After their picnic, which had included many arguments like the one with the cake, they had split up- Sammy and Christian had gone back to the Academy while Kat and Tara walked to the beach. They boy's had forgotten their bathing suits and so headed back to get them. They were going to meet the girls at the beach.<p>

"Well I guess it's a good thing that he's cute," Kat said, sending a sly smile Tara's way.

"Kat, come on. He's not cute…" Tara said, looking into the distance. Of course she knew he was cute, how could someone not find his face adorable?

"Tara banana, I saw how your eyes lit up when you saw him!" Kat gave her a knowing look and nudged her lightly on her arm. "You can just admit that you think he's attractive. I wont say anything, promise!" She said, smiling.

"Your delusional, Kat. And lets say, hypothetically, that I do think he's attractive. Why would that matter to you anyways?" Tara asked, confused, yet relived that she could tell Kat.

"Aha! So you do think he's attractive. This is good news to me, Tara, good news!" Kat exclaimed.

"But why Kat?" Tara asked in a whiney tone. She was usually fine with not knowing exactly what was always going on, but this time she needed to know.

"Later Tara. Now let's have fun! We're finally at the beach!" Kat explained. Tara looked around, she hadn't even noticed that they had reached their destination. Kat grabbed Tara's hand and started running towards the water. She made them stop before they reached the water to take their clothes off and put their things down, but after that, Kat started to run again, with Tara in tow.

"Eeeeee!" Tara screamed when her feet touched the water. It was freezing! "How are you still going in? This water is freezing!" But that didn't stop Kat, it didn't even slow her down—she kept going with Tara complaining and whining about the temperature of the water behind her. Finally, when they were about mid-thigh in the water, Kat stopped.

"Isn't the water great?" She asked, looking like a puppy that had just gotten its first treat. Her eyes flickered to the left for a brief moment and then came back to Tara.

"What were you looking at?" Tara asked, about to turn around. "Is there- AHHHHH!" She screamed as she was dunked into the freezing water.

She surfaced after a couple seconds only to find Christian laughing and Kat a couple steps away trying to contain her laughter. Sammy was still working his way over to where they were, but Tara could see a smile on his face.

"Well I know what you were looking at now," Tara said, glaring at Kat. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and then wiped the water off her face.

"Sorry! Not my fault—Christian signaled to be quiet, and I didn't want to ruin his plan!" Kat said, smiling, yet apologetic.

"Yeah, Training Bra, loosen up a little," Christian told her, smirking.

"I have a name you know," Tara said, getting a little frustrated that he wouldn't call her by her actual name.

"I'm aware," Christian replied nonchalantly.

"GUYS! This water is unbearable!" Sammy shouted, finally having reached the rest of the group.

Christian turned around and said, "Well yeah, did you expect it to be a Jacuzzi, Sammy?"

Kat turned around and walked towards them to join their conversation. Tara started towards them too, but then had an idea. Christian had his back facing her—it was payback time.

She sneaked up behind Christian, trying to be as quiet as possible in the water. When she was close enough, she reached up, grabbed his shoulders, and pulled him back in an attempt to dunk him, but ended up pulling him onto herself, causing them both to go down.

Underwater, Christian grabbed her hands and pulled them both back up.

He wiped the water off his face and said, "don't get too excited, Tara, I just wasn't prepared for that one." He seemed surprised that she had tried to dunk him; at least Tara caught him off guard.

"Good one Tara!" Sammy said. Him and Kat were a bit to to side of Christian and Tara, cracking up. They had seen Tara's futile attempt to dunk Christian since they were facing Christian while they were talking in their little group, and so facing Tara.

Tara turned around to face Christian again, "You called me Tara? Good, so were past the stage of you calling me Training Bra."

"Yeah, it was a mouthful anyways. Tara's short and sweet" He said, actually grinning, not smirking.

That caught Tara off guard, though, giving Christian ample time to push her back into the water. Underwater, she smiled to herself and could have sworn she felt a tingle in her stomach.

She surfaced and this time, there was a smirk on Christian's face.

"And that's how it's done, Tara." He said.

"Hey you lovebirds, get back over here. We need to head back if we want to be back at the Academy in time for dinner!" Kat shouted over to Tara and Christian.

"Well come on then, let's move," Tara said, making her way to where Kat and Sammy were. She turned around to make Christian was following, and sure enough there he was, not even two steps behind her. She turned around quickly, hiding her slight blush at his proximity.

When they reached Kat and Sammy, the four of them made their way back up to where they had left their stuff, and put their clothes back on. They then started on their long walk to the Academy.

-x-

When they finally reached the Academy, the four of them headed to their rooms, deciding to meet back at the bottom of their stairs in 10 minutes so that they could change clothes and put their things away.

When they all met up again, the four headed directly to the kitchen and grabbed some food. They sat down to eat it in front of the TV. Also sitting in front of the TV to eat was Abigail. She glanced at the four of them and stuck up her nose.

"I suppose you all weren't practicing what we did in class today." She stated.

"Of course not Abigail, why would we do that when we had the option of going to the beach?" Kat asked in a teasing tone.

"Because you all need the practice. Its sad, really." She said, standing up. "I'm headed off to my palates class." She informed them and left.

Once she was out of hearing range, Kat and Tara started laughing.

"Who has a palates class scheduled for after dinner? This is the time to relax!" Tara exclaimed.

"Well I know one thing for sure, she'd be an interesting pas de deux partner…" Sammy said, looking off in the direction she left.

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><p><strong>A bit of foreshadowing for you guys. If you have any suggestions about what I should do for future chapters, feel free to tell me! I'm all for suggestions. And also constructive criticism is much appreciated.<strong>** **Now all that's left to say is …. REVIEW! But really, they make my day!****


	4. Partners in Dance

**Thanks to my wonderful reviewers! You all seriously make me smile- I love reading what you have to say! But now, it's chapter 4 time! Get excited, its a long one.**

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><p>The next day in class, Mrs. Raine made Tara practice her technical work and her footwork at the bar. It wasn't the most exciting thing she could have been doing, but if she did this, and did it right, she was one step close to joining the rest of the class in their normal, everyday combinations and dances.<p>

While Tara was working on her pliés and the class was working on a series of leaps, Patrick walked in.

"Mrs. Raine, can I speak with you for a moment?" he asked.

"Certainly. Class, work on what I just taught you. Don't get distracted, this will only take a moment." She said and walked out of the room.

Once she was out, Abigail immediately started going over the counts in front of the mirror, as did many other students. Kat, on the other hand, strolled over to where Tara was practicing.

"So what do you think that's all about" she asked, gesturing outside to where Mrs. Raine and Patrick were talking.

"No clue." Tara replied and got back to perfecting her plié.

"Tara come on, loosen up a bit!" Kat said, seeing that she was so focused on her practice, "you don't want to become another Abigail, now do you?" she asked, teasing.

That caught Tara's attention though, just like Kat expected it to. "I would try to avoid that at all costs..." Tara shuddered.

Kat chuckled, "good, now that we've got that established, let's talk about plans for this evening." Kat said, looking excited while thinking about getting out of class.

Tara was about to reply when the two teachers walked back into the room.

"Class, listen up. We have an announcement. The other half of first year, the boys, will be joining us later on today. From now on we will be doing things in pairs, and your partner will be permanent- you two will be dancing with each other for the rest of the year." Mrs. Raine announced. There were some girls whose faces lit up, turned to their friends, and started whispering. On the other hand, there were the girls like Abigail, who just stood there, looking like her training was being compromised.

"They will be in here after lunch- at the moment they are working on other things than you all in here are. Prepare to combine classes in this room after lunch for your first partnered exercise of first year," Patrick said with a grin.

After saying that, he left the room. Mrs. Raine looked at us, "well don't just stand there you lot, we're still in class! Get into groups of four; we are going to practice this and get it right." She waited impatiently for the class to get into their groups. "Well that took long enough. All right, from the top. 5, 6, 7, 8!" The first group of four started on their leaps.

Tara looked at them, a bit envious. But when she thought about what they were going to do later on in the day, with the boys, she felt better—Mrs. Raine couldn't keep her from doing partner dances and exercises. An added plus was that she knew two of the boys—Christian and Sammy. She thought Sammy would be a nice partner. Christian, on the other hand, well she didn't want to think about that since it would basically be a bunch of teasing and no work would get done.

But Tara's thoughts were interrupted by Mrs. Raine's loud voice, "Tara are you listening to me?" She looked angry.

"Yes Mrs. Raine, sorry." Tara tried to sound apologetic, but it turned out sounding like a mixture of that and confusion since she had no clue what Mrs. Raine was talking about. She heard some girls in the class laugh.

"I said, come join us over here. We are about to have a class talk." Mrs. Raine ushered Tara over. She quickly made her way to where the rest of the class had taken a seat on the floor and sat down next to Kat.

"You looked like you were in your own world over there. What were you thinking about?" Kat asked, curious.

Tara was about to answer, but she was silenced when Mrs. Raine started to talk. She mouthed 'I'll tell you later' to Kat, who nodded.

"I know that most of you are very excited about this new partner exercise we are going to be doing from now on. I just need to remind you all that this cannot affect your performance. Do I make myself clear? I do not want any slacking, cutting corners or shenanigans of any sort. Remember that you are at this academy for a reason, and that reason is not to get distracted by boys. Understood?" She asked, finishing her speech.

"Understood, Mrs. Raine." The class answered, all in unison.

"Very well. You may all leave then. Class dismissed." Everyone rushed to gather their things and walked out the door.

Tara walked out the door and waited for Kat to come outside. When she did, Kat immediately started talking. "So, Tara, guess who's in the boys class that's going to be joining us after lunch…" she seemed excited for some odd reason.

"Uh, I'm not sure Kat. I know Sammy and Christian are…" She understood what Kat was trying to say. "Ok, Kat, listen, I don't like Christian! Sure, I think he's cute, but that's all."

"Ok, T, if that's what you say,"

Once they were outside, Kat looked in in the direction of the food stand, "look they have Italian food today! Let's grab some before it's all gone." They rushed over to the food stand and stood in line.

After they got their food, they walked over to an empty table, and set their food down. Tara got some angel hair pasta with pesto, while Kat tried the four-cheese lasagna.

"Let's eat!" They said at the same time, laughed a bit, and then dug in.

"Mm!" Tara was in heaven, the food was delicious, "this is almost as good as-" she was cut off by someone behind her.

"Me? I know I'm incredibly good looking and all, but really Tara, control yourself." Without turning around, she knew it was Christian.

"No. I was going to say mum's cooking back home. And how do you always just pop out of nowhere? I swear I didn't hear a sound." Tara said, not missing a beat. She really was confused though. How did Christian always know where she was? Could he be a…

"Well if you must know Tara, I'm a stalker…" He said, reading her mind yet managing to look completely serious.

Tara almost chocked on her pesto. "W-what?" She managed to get out.

"Yeah Tara, I'm a stalker. One hundred percent." Christian still looked completely serious, but Tara knew he was joking now.

"Totally. I'm sure your telling the truth, Christian." She turned her head and looked at Kat, "anyways, back to what I was originally saying-" Tara was once again interrupted by Mr. Stalker.

"About how good I am?" He smirked this time.

"Sure, Christian, sure. About how good you are." Tara rolled her eyes and then looked at Kat again, hoping to finish what she was trying to say, but saw her with a cheeky grin plastered on her face.

Kat checked her watch and got up, picking up her trash and her dance bag. "Well, I'm off to class. You two should start heading up too, don't want to be late for our partner exercise!" She said quickly and started towards the building, leaving Tara and Christian alone.

"Ok, come on Christian, let's head up to class," Tara said with a sigh. Of course Kat would leave here with Christian. She picked up her trash and her dance bag and turned to look at him.

Now that she really got a good look at him, she admitted he was attractive. He had a sculpted face, but that mole just irked her. His body wasn't too bad either…

"You done admiring me, Tara?" Christian said, breaking her stream of though. He had a knowing smile on his face.

She blushed, but said, "In your dreams, Christian." She walked over to the bin and threw her trash away. "Now come on, I really don't want to be late for class." She said and started walking.

"Eager are we?" He said and slowed his pace just to annoy her. "I don't see what the rush is—all were doing is getting our partners."

"Exactly! And I want to see who mine is! So come on, lets get a move on!" She said and grabbed his hand and started walking faster with him in tow. She realized that she had done after they reached the stairs leading to the academy.

She didn't let go of his hand, though, just increased her pace. Her checks flushed and she was glad that Christian was walking behind her and couldn't see her face. He would have made fun of her for sure.

Christian wriggled out of her grasp and increased his pace to match hers. "So we're holding hands already? That's moving a bit too fast. Don't you think so Tara?" He asked, teasing her.

Tara rolled her eyes. Typical Christian, of course he would say that.

When they finally reached the class, he said "well we're here so good job, we made it," Christian said. He looked around the room, "but we seem to be the last people here."

"That's because were late," Tara said and then her eyes quickly found Mrs. Raine's. She looked at them, frustrated, and sighed.

"Welcome to class you two, I'm glad you both decided to join us,"she said. "I've already paired everyone else up since they were here _on time,_ so it looks like you two are going to be partners."

Tara and Christian looked at each other. He smirked and she sighed, but Christian could have sworn he saw the beginnings of a smile on her face.

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><p><strong>Yay, chapter 4! How was it? Tell me in a review! <strong>

**Oh and just so y'all know, I'm probably going to be updating every week, but that's not definite. **


	5. What's in the Hat?

I really don't have an excuse for not updating this story for such a long time other than I was really busy! Sorry to everyone who's been following this and I hope that this extra long chapter 5 makes up for it!

PS guys my beta is porcupine451 check her out!

Chapter 5

So it was decided that Tara and Christian would become partners in dance. After Mrs. Raine announced that the two would be partners, there were some chuckles here and there from the rest of the class.

Tara spotted Kat, who was presently wiggling her eyebrows up and down and looking between Christian and her. She was sitting down next to Sammy, so those two were probably paired up together.

"Hey, Tara, we might want to sit down everyone is staring…" Christian whispered, feeling a little self-conscious.

"Since when do you care what other people think? I thought you were more of the 'I do what I want when I want' type of person." Tara whispered back, a little confused.

"Well there are certain occasions, Miss. Webster, when I do actually care. Like this for example." He looked up directly into the face of none other than Mrs. Raine. "And I'm guessing from the look that the teach is giving us we needed to shut up." He said looking sheepish.

"Well now that you two are done chit-chatting, let's begin today's class! Mr. Henry will be teaching you today, so be respectful and don't waste his time." Mrs. Raine announced in a stern voice. She turned to Mr. Henry; "I will now leave them in your capable hands. Good luck." After saying that, she exited the room and Mr. Henry looked over the class.

"So I have this… tradition of not actually teaching on the first day…" he began, and almost immediately, cheers erupted from the entire class. "I'm not done though, guys. I don't teach on the first day, but you do have something to do so you're not just wasting your day."

He pulled a black top hat off the shelf behind him. "Here in this top hat, I have what you will be doing for the rest of the day. I want one person from each pair to come up and take a piece of folded paper from the hat." There were some murmurs around the room. "Ok! Ready guys? 3…2…1… ok kids start coming to pick your task!"

"I'll go get it!" Tara told Christian, feeling excited. She wanted to know what they were supposed to do the rest of the day.

"Go for it, T," Christian said, and leaned back on his hands, looking relaxed. Tara took an extra second to look at him, then shook her head and headed off towards Mr. Henry. She joined the line, and then saw both Kat and Sammy walking to the line.

"Why are both of you coming to get the piece of paper? Aren't you two partners?" Tara asked, feeling confused.

"No, T, I've got the best partner in the world," Sammy said, looking as enthusiastic as a sack of potatoes.

"Let me guess! I love guessing…" Tara said, looking around the room for Sammy's possible partners. Her eyes landed on Lauren, a tall, tan girl sitting in the back.

"It's Lauren!" Tara said.

"Nope, but my actual partner is sitting pretty close to her, in the same part of the room." Sammy hinted.

Tara scanned the room again, this time only focusing on the back of it, and looking close to Lauren. There was Burt, Angela, Katie and… oh gosh. Oh gosh. There was another person back there as well.

"Oh gosh, Sammy, tell me it isn't her!" Tara exclaimed.

"Oh yes, T, its Abigail!"(dun dun dun) Sammy said with fake enthusiasm. Tara felt bad for him. Such a sweet boy shouldn't have to put up with such a witch.

"Then who's your partner, Kat?" Tara asked after the initial shock of Sammy and Abigail being partners wore off.

"Tristan. He's the one over there smiling at us." She pointed out, and then gave a fake smile in return. Actually, it looked halfway between a frown and a scowl.

"I'm guessing you're not particularly fond of him," Tara said. Was she the only one who had a partner she didn't completely hate?

"No, its not that, it's just that he's a bit too... how would I say this?" Kat stopped talking and thought for a moment. After a couple seconds her face lit up, "well you see he's a bit in love with me!" Tara and Sammy just started at her in shock. "It's not too bad. He's like a loyal puppy dog if you can think about it like that." Kat then turned around to him and gave him another smile. He beamed back at her. "See? He loves me!" she started to laugh.

"Next!" Mr. Henry called out. Tara moved up to the hat and stuck her hand in, hoping for something fun.

"Spend the day as if you and your partner were in a 3-legged race" Tara read, already thinking of how hard this was going to be.

"Ah that looks like so much fun, T!" Sammy said sarcastically, quietly laughing with Kat. Apparently the two of them had read the piece of paper she had pulled over her shoulder.

"You know what? It will be." Tara said, determined to make the most of their day.

Next up to pull a piece of paper out of the hat was Kat. She got one that basically said play 49 questions, 's odd version of 20 questions. Sammy pulled one that said that he and his partner had to walk the other around blindfolded.

Tara walked back to where Christian was sitting and told him what they had to do for the rest of the day.

"Ok well are we just doing this around school or is it anywhere?" He asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine but I think that it's going to be wherever. Mr. Henry didn't give anyone a specific place to be at."

Just as Tara finished explaining, Mr. Henry called for everyone's attention.

"Ok guys, listen up. Now that all of you have your papers, you know what it is you will be doing for the remainder of today. All that's left on my part are the directions. You all can go anywhere to do your task but you do need to be back before it gets dark." He looked out at the class. "Any questions?" There was no response. "Alright, judging by the lack of response, I'm assuming you all know what to do. So don't waste anymore time, get on with your task!"

Everyone started packing up their things and leaving the room with their partners. Tara found Kat and Sammy talking to their partners in a group across the room. Kat noticed her and beckoned her to come over with Christian.

"Hey, Christian, Kat and Sammy are calling us over there, let's go". Tara said and started to walk to the group with Christian in tow.

"So what's going on you guys?" Tara asked the group.

"Kat wants us all to go in a group." Abigail said, huffing.

"Hey, Sammy said it too! It's not Kat's fault at all!" Tristan, Kat's partner, objected. "But I would like some one on one time with Kat, that would be nice..." he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

She rolled her eyes and thought for a moment. She was about to speak, but Sammy beat her to it.

"Here, since this technically is a partner exercise, what about we stay in our partners for a while, maybe for 2 hours, and then we can all meet up. I'm thinking the beach?"

"Sounds like a plan," Christian said, "come on Tara let's head out so we can start on our oh-so-fun task." he said sarcastically.

**Time Skip  
><strong>  
>Christian checked his watch again.<p>

"Is spending time with just me so Bad that you need to constantly check your watch?" Tara asked, a little annoyed.

"No T, it's not that." Christian replied, and checked his watch again.

"Ok well then what is it?" Tara was getting impatient.

"Nothing you need to worry about. Just forget about it, ok?" Christian snapped back.

"Sure well, just keep the watch checking to a minimum."

"Yeah, yeah..." He checked the time on his phone this time. Tara rolled her eyes and concentrated on walking in sync with him.

Their whole 3-legged thing had proven to be harder than expected. Once they had finally found a large bandana to tie their feet together with, they tried walking, but Tara tripped and luckily caught herself on a nearby chair. The two of them took turns accidentally falling until they tried saying "inside, outside" constantly to remind themselves which foot they were supposed to be stepping with.

Getting into a car and driving would have been impossible, so they decided to walk around until either Kat and Tristan or Sammy and Abigail picked them up to go to the beach.

There was a silence between them as they were walking after Tara asked Christian to stop checking his watch so often. To try to start a conversation, Tara asked, "So Christian, what did you do before you joined the academy?"

"What did I do?" Christian asked, confused.

"Yeah like hobby wise, like did you always like to dance?"

"I didn't have too many hobbies," he checked his watch for the time out of the corner of his eye, it was 2:50, and made a mental note to text Drake and ask him to text the info- he couldn't take this call in front of anyone, T included. "And about dance," he continued, "I was never really too serious about it until I got to the academy."

"Oh ok well I'm glad you're finally serious about it! You're really good! What's you're favorite style? Mine is ballet of course." Tara responded, determined to keep this conversation going. This was probably the most he'd said since they started on their walk.

"I'd have to say hip hop. I'm actually glad that they're adding that to the list of classes that we have to take this year. If it was all ballet all the time, I don't know what I would have done with myself... But don't tell Mrs. Raine that." he said joking. Seems he was back to normal, all it took was a little push.

"Hey, T, I do have to text someone real quick, so let's just stop over at that tree for a second while I finish my business." he said.

"Um yeah sure thing Christian, no problem..." Tara wasn't going to argue with him saying that they only had around 5 minutes until they needed to be back at school so that one of their friends could pick them up.

Christian took no time at all to text his friend. In fact, Tara only had enough time to finish thinking about how to get back to the school so they could get picked up when Christian put his hand on her shoulder and asked if she was ready to go back.

On their way back they kept a conversation going, this time about Tara's family and friends back home. She even mentioned the animals back on the farm and how she was known as "the dancer". It was ironic because at the academy, she was at the bottom of the list for most things.

When they finally reached the school, they found Kat and Tristan waiting for them outside the main door.

"You do know you could have just called and we would have hurried up." Christian said casually.

"Yeah Kat we didn't want to make you wait too long!" Tara said apologetically, starting to worry that her friend had spent too much time just sitting out here waiting for her and Christian to arrive

"Don't worry you two, I didn't want to interrupt the lovebirds, now did I?" Kat laughed. "Anyways, get in the back you two! And you remember Tristan right?"

Tara blushed at the lovebird comment but kept her mouth shut. Christian didn't say or do anything, just took Tara's hand and got into the back of the car first and then pulled her in. This just made her blush even harder, but she looked away so he couldn't see it.

"Lady, gentleman, and Tristan, fasten your seat belts! This ride is about to begin!" Kat said, then hit the gas.

Ah ha ha! Who's Drake you may ask? Well you guys will find out soon enough anyways. And why was Christian checking his phone so often? Could something be up? Hmmm. If you guys want to guess, go for it! Tell me how it was in a review!


End file.
